Blogger of the Month November 2014

April 15, 2015

A pinch of India

A semester away from home: experience adventures, discover foreign cultures and expand your own horizons. Maximilian (25) thought all of this when he decided to spend his semester abroad in New Delhi. There are almost 6,000 kilometers between India and Germany. So that his family, friends and acquaintances can share in his experiences despite the distance, he launched his blog A Pinch of India .

In India, people approach each other more, don't look away, but are interested in their fellow human beings. For Maximilian, that is the main difference between Europe and India. “Especially at university, all you have to do is sit somewhere for tea and people will come to you, talk to you, ask your opinion. Of course, this doesn't always lead to long-lasting contacts, but it's kind of nice." Sometimes this niceness turns negative, then the student from Bayreuth realizes that people are friendly to him because they want something from him. Usually because they want to sell something. This has already happened at markets , tourist tours and in shops . In his blog he critically examines both the positive and negative experiences. For Maximilian, it is precisely their interaction that makes the country unique and special.

In general, Maximilian makes a very reflective and critical impression in conversation and in his blog. For example, he always writes the texts for his blog some time after the actual event; in the meantime, he forms the text in his thoughts. When the time comes that he sits down at his laptop to put the sentences on paper, he writes them down relatively quickly. In his head he has already been thinking about the story itself and the best formulations for it for a long time. The 25-year-old thinks this process is important because, after all, everyone brings their own culture with them and, in his opinion, when things go differently than usual, people often first resort to a defense mechanism. If you think about it again later and take the circumstances into account, your perception can change and you suddenly reevaluate a situation completely.

Just as he believes that a blog must have an overarching theme, Maximilian also believes that each individual entry must have one. “I write very inspired by inspiration. There has to be a specific reason for me to write something. In principle, this can be many things, for example if something particularly moved me or I experienced something extraordinary. Then I'll write." The reason can also be if someone has asked him a question in the comment function : How he is doing; what the planes are like in India or what his culinary highlight has been so far . He dutifully answers these in the Q&A posts (Question & Answer), because on the one hand it gives him reason to think about exactly these questions and because it allows him to stay in touch with those who stay at home. And that was the original idea of the blog: to let friends and family from thousands of kilometers away share in his life. However, Maximilian emphasizes that anyone can ask him a question, even people he doesn't know.

You can read Maximilian's blog and ask him questions until mid-December. Just in time for Christmas, the student returns to Germany, where, in addition to his family and friends, an internship and his master's thesis await him. It's clear to Maximilian that he won't continue to run the blog after that, because the semester abroad means the hook for his blog is over. Until his next adventure.

You would also like to become blogger of the month or know someone who should be. Then simply write a short message to rademacher@uniglobale.de

A pinch of India A semester away: experience adventures, discover foreign cultures and expand your own horizons. Maximilian (25) thought all of this when he decided to spend his semester abroad in New Delhi. There are almost 6,000 kilometers between India and Germany. So that his family, friends and acquaintances can share in his experiences despite the distance

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